451: Chapter 448 My Love!!!

Lu Jianchuan threw a punch, colliding with the Taoist's fist.

Bang—!

The sound of clashing metal exploded in the ice cave, shaking the icicles overhead so that they fell in a flurry. Neither man retreated; they stood fist to fist, power against power, trading several more head-on blows that made the air itself tremble.

On the other side, Ye Ouyang was maneuvering against the giant scorpion.

The scorpion's tail stinger lunged again and again, fast and vicious. Ye Ouyang dodged left and right, his golden figure sliding across the ice, narrowly avoiding the tip of the stinger each time it was about to touch him. He wanted to find an opportunity to counterattack, but the scorpion gave him no chance to get close.

Suddenly, the scorpion's carapace stood on end.

It wasn't the whole plate rising, but the dense spikes on it standing up simultaneously like an infuriated hedgehog. The tips of those spikes shimmered with a faint blue light, clearly laced with a lethal toxin.

Ye Ouyang retracted the foot he had just stepped out.

"Oh boy..." He stared at the body full of poisonous spikes, his scalp tingling.

But a second later, he realized—he was wearing armor. As long as he didn't use too much force, those spikes shouldn't be able to pierce through, right?

He tentatively swung a claw.

The spikes on the scorpion's carapace lunged at him at the same time. Ye Ouyang didn't dodge, and his golden claws scraped across the carapace—they indeed didn't pierce through, as the armor blocked them. But the sound of the spikes scraping against the armor was ear-piercing, enough to set one's teeth on edge.

The scorpion was enraged.

With a flick of its tail, it tried to wrap directly around Ye Ouyang. Ye Ouyang instinctively reached out to grab the tail—and then he regretted it.

The scorpion's strength was far greater than his. He was dragged and swung around like a grasshopper caught by the leg, spun twice in the air, and then slammed hard against the ice wall.

Bang!

A web of cracks exploded across the ice. Ye Ouyang slid down from the wall, but before he could regain his footing, he was swung up again and smashed into the other side.

Bang! Bang!

After two more hits, he finally let go and rolled to the ground, shaking his dizzy head.

Ye Ouyang slid down the ice wall, his head still buzzing. He shook his head and looked at his pair of golden claws, suddenly feeling a bit discouraged.

"My Basic Form... really isn't suited for combat." He muttered to himself, "Am I really only meant to be a support, just healing my teammates and stuff?"

He looked at the pair of sharp claws again.

"But with claws this sharp, I want to go on the offensive too." He sighed, "When I get back, I definitely have to tell The Forger to make me a form that can actually fight—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the scorpion's tail lunged again.

Ye Ouyang had just been beaten senseless and hadn't fully recovered yet. The tail stinger headed straight for his face at extreme speed, and he didn't have time to dodge—

Bang!

A black-red plasma beam shot from the side, accurately hitting the base of the scorpion's tail and blowing it clean off. The scorpion let out a shrill screech, and before it could react, a bone sword flew in from the other side, piercing straight through its head.

The scorpion's massive body swayed and then collapsed with a thud.

Ye Ouyang turned to look; Wei Ziqing and Shen Mingyuan were striding over from the direction of the cave entrance. The twin guns in Shen Mingyuan's hands were still smoking, while Wei Ziqing walked over, pulled his bone sword out of the scorpion's head, and flicked the blood off it.

"Thank you, Seniors.” Ye Ouyang breathed a sigh of relief.

Wei Ziqing glanced at him, then at the dead scorpion on the ground.

"You really aren't suited for combat."

Ye Ouyang was stunned for a moment, then sighed.

"Sigh—"

Shen Mingyuan didn't say much, merely gesturing deeper inside with his chin.

"Let's go, it's not over yet over there."

The three of them rushed toward the depths of the cave.

In the deepest part of the ice cave, Lu Jianchuan was locked in a fierce battle with the Taoist.

No, to be precise, Lu Jianchuan was tearing the Taoist apart with his bare hands.

He had already activated his Explosive Combustion Form, and the dark red energy conduits on the surface of his armor were glowing. He grabbed a thick branch on the Taoist's body, and the thrusters on his back suddenly fired; he pulled backward with his whole body—with a crack, the branch was forcibly torn off.

The Taoist let out a cry of pain as a large chunk of the wooden armor on his body instantly went missing. Before he could react, Lu Jianchuan grabbed another branch, fired the thrusters again, and tore off another one.

He was full of strength; every branch torn off carried wood chips and sap, and the wooden armor on the Taoist was disintegrating at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The three of them stood to the side, watching Lu Jianchuan smash the Taoist against the wall punch after punch.

"Whoa." Shen Mingyuan crossed his arms, "He's really pinning him down and giving him a beating."

Wei Ziqing nodded without speaking. Ye Ouyang stood nearby, watching the Taoist smash pit after pit into the wall, silently counting in his head—that was the sixth pit.

"It seems like we aren't needed," Ye Ouyang whispered.

Shen Mingyuan shrugged.

Indeed, they weren't.

Lu Jianchuan grabbed the last few branches that hadn't fully grown yet and tore them all off with a thrust and a pull. The Taoist's wooden armor was in pieces, with no time to regenerate. He pulled back his fist, charged his strength, and used a second-stage thruster acceleration—

He slammed a punch into the Taoist's chest.

Bang—!

The Taoist was embedded into the ice wall, countless cracks exploding around him. He twitched but couldn't crawl up. He moved again, but still couldn't get up.

He was down for the count.

Lu Jianchuan withdrew his fist, turned around, and nodded to the three.

"Let's head further in and see what's inside."

Just as he finished speaking, a furry figure scurried out from the depths of the cave.

It was that Monkey Researcher. It was running incredibly fast, using all four limbs, looking back as it ran. Seeing four people standing ahead, its feet slipped, and it nearly fell over.

Shen Mingyuan stepped forward and reached out to block it.

"Where do you think you're going?"

The monkey raised its hands, the movement so standard it looked practiced.

"I surrender! I surrender!" it shrieked. "As the saying goes, those who surrender shall not be killed! You can't kill prisoners!"

Lu Jianchuan walked over and looked down at it.

"What happened?"

The monkey's eyes darted around, and a smile plastered onto its face.

"It's just that... you know, when doing experiments, there's always a little bit of that... you know, that thing..." It rubbed its hands together, speaking rapidly. "If you can understand my 'that', then you should know that 'that' is just that 'that' 'that' 'that'..."

Ye Ouyang stood to the side, his expression gradually becoming one of bewilderment.

"Huh?"

Just as the word left his mouth, a thunderous crack rang out.

The ice wall exploded from within, sending countless shards of ice flying. A grey-white figure stepped out from the shattered ice layers.

Its skin was a deathly grey, like meat that had been frozen for a long time. Its claws were long and sharp, glinting with a cold light. On its head grew a pair of twisted horns, like a deer's but much sharper. Its mouth protruded forward, unnaturally long, revealing rows of dense, sharp teeth inside.

It was still clutching half a deer in its mouth, blood dripping down its chin.

Ye Ouyang stared at the thing, stunned for a second.

"This... why does this look so much like a Wendigo?"

Wei Ziqing gripped his bone sword and took half a step back.

"No way?"

The three of them simultaneously turned to look at the monkey.

The monkey shrunk its neck and gave a couple of dry laughs.

"Uh... yeah, at least it's just like the legends say." It rubbed its hands. "When we discovered it, it was frozen in this mountain. After being frozen for so long, it should have been dead by all rights, but when it was frozen, the cells still had a tiny bit of vitality..."

It glanced at Ye Ouyang.

"We used those... your cells, to revive it just a little bit. And then it turned into this. Haha."

Ye Ouyang opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

The monkey leaned forward slightly and asked in a low voice, "Um... can I leave first?"

Shen Mingyuan glanced at it.

"What do you think?"

The monkey shrunk back and stopped talking.

Shen Mingyuan turned to Ye Ouyang and pointed at the monkey.

"You can at least beat this thing, right? It's yours; keep an eye on it." He paused. "Since your Basic Form has weak combat capability as a support, watching a monkey should be no problem."

Ye Ouyang nodded.

"As for that guy—" Shen Mingyuan looked toward the Wendigo, "leave it to the three of us."

Lu Jianchuan cracked his wrists, the dark red energy conduits lighting up on his armor.

"Fine, make it quick. While I'm still in Explosive Combustion Form."

Wei Ziqing reached back and slotted the bone sword into the scabbard behind his waist. Sword and scabbard fused and restructured, a black outer layer growing out from the armor. A few seconds later, he stood at the front, gripping a slender black Long Spear with both hands.

"Ready."

Shen Mingyuan raised his twin guns, black-red energy dancing at the muzzles.

"I'm a marksman; my normal state is enough for damage output. I won't switch to my Second Form for melee."

The three of them fanned out, surrounding the Wendigo.